Warning – Don't Order from Carrie (cdk designs) on Etsy!

My wedding was on 5/26/13 and it was the most beautiful and perfect day in every way! However I had a horrible experience prior to the wedding with this Etsy seller and wanted to share my story to warn anyone thinking about ordering from Carrie of cdk designs (cdkane59). She basically bailed and screwed me over right before the wedding!

I wanted to order my escort cards since I had done SO much DIY stuff the entire planning process and was getting pretty burnt out. I contacted her on 3/19/13 to ask about the escort cards. I told her that I can’t get the final guest list to her until about 3 weeks before the wedding since I need to wait for all the RSVP. She said that is plenty of time. I messaged her a few more times to ask about different sizes and she responded pretty quickly.

I contacted her again on 4/8/13 to see if she can start working on the design. We went back and forth a few times and finally got the design/color done by 5/2/13. Response was slower during this time and I had to follow up several times. She seemed a little unorganized but I didn’t think anything of it.

I emailed her my guest list/table numbers on 5/7/13 and it was now time to finalize the font. We had to go back and forth again because the original font I wanted turned out a little hard to read on the proof (she only sent me the proof for a few names). Its hard to tell sometimes when the names are not typed out. Response was again slow (by the way, she doesn’t check messages on the weekends). Meanwhile, I kept telling her to go ahead and create the custom listing for me so I can pay her since by this stage, we know the size of the cards and exactly how many. She never made the custom listing. After many messages and me constantly following up, we finally had the right font on 5/15/13…10 days till the wedding. A little scary but she claims to have a one day turnover so I was thinking there was still time.

Everything looked good except the spacing for certain names looked a little off. It was just the style of font, but some names just looked like there were no space in between. I asked her to just maybe double space the ones that look weird. She tells me that I would have to tell her exactly which names to double space. Ummm…how would I know if she never gave me the entire proof of all the names? I told her that I trust her and for her to use her judgement. It really isn’t that big of deal…just make it look nice!

The last response I got from her was on 5/17/13: “I don’t think that any of them need extra spacing. I’m very concerned that you’re not going to like them and that reflects on me. I simply cannot make a judgment like this if I don’t see the need. Maybe you’d be happier with another font?”

There was now only ONE week until the wedding! I told her I don’t care anymore at this point and just need to get the cards in time. I told her if she doesn’t feel like double spacing is needed, then just go with it. Just make the custom listing so I can pay! I messaged and emailed several times and she just never responded. I figured she bailed and had to scramble to make my own escort cards.

I think she just decided to ignore me because there was just not enough time…unless she was to overnight it to me. Maybe to her it just wasn’t worth it since my order was a small order around 60-65 cards. I don’t care how small my order was, you just don’t do business this way! If somehow she really got slammed and can’t do it, just freakin tell me so I wouldn’t be wasting my time waiting for nothing! How can someone like this be in this type of business? Especially selling wedding stuff!!

Since she never made a custom listing for me and I never paid her, she technically doesn’t owe me anything. But seriously? I had been in contact with her since MARCH! A total of 48 messages between us! Totally unprofessional and just EVIL! Seriously who does this? There would have been plenty of time if she just responded on time…or work faster when time was starting to run out…or just tell me she can’t do it!

I ended up making my own escort card and it turned out really nice and done on time but it was just really stressful! Sorry this was so long but I want to warn all brides out there because no bride deserves this! (content removed for violation of commenting guidelines i, Weddingbee Terms of Service – Penguin)

@Chrysoberyl: I don’t think so. Tell me, what kind of person does that? Not even some sort of apology? I think that reflects her character pretty clearly. I even messaged her again AFTER my wedding…I told her it was fine that she bailed on me. I told her I made my own cards and it turned out beautiful. I told her she was unprofessional and should not be doing business this way. Did I get any sort of response? No…and I wasn’t surprised.

I was actually wondering if something happened to her…like maybe she got sick or family emergency. I wasn’t trying to just jump to any conclusions. But I was checking her shop and saw a bunch of other new custom orders pop up and other transactions during that time.

A good person just doesn’t do that. period. Like I said, if she was really in fact slammed, all she had to do was say something to me. Whatever the case was. I’m not saying I’m a saint, but I would NEVER do that to someone! For their wedding of all things! Mistakes happens and things go wrong all the time…in every business…I get that. But this was her ignoring me on purpose. I messaged her on Etsy AND also emailed her directly multiple times. For her to do this on purpose and put me through that kind of stress…I think that is pretty horrible. I thought I was going to have a panic attack!!

Your review would be a lot more creditable if you didn’t make a personal attack, OP. It’s unfortunate that she did that but as you said yourself you never actually hired her. It sounds like she did a lot of work for you without being paid.

@AlwaysSunny: No, I never paid her because she never made the custom listing. So basically she lead me on for 2 months? I kept asking her to make the listing so I can pay her. I asked her to make the listing multiple times and she never answered directly. If I knew she was going to just bail at the end, I would have gone with someone one else or just do it myself earlier. Instead of having to scramble the final week. Yes, we did go back and forth a lot and it was a lot of messages. She could have done the custom listing long ago. I don’t know exactly what her policy is but she never objected to creating the design prior to receiving payment. Not to mention, doing the design was included in the price of the cards. I know she was doing the design and that’s why I kept telling her to make the listing. She would have gotten paid for the work if she actually followed through and I actually got my cards. It was not me who bailed on her…it was the other way around. And since I never actually “purchased” anything from her, I can’t even leave a negative feedback on Etsy…

@HappySky7: Yes, I agree. She did want to know exactly. But time was running out and she was responding very slowly. She knew my wedding date and it really just seems like she didn’t care. I kept asking “can I get it by this weekend” or “can I get it ASAP” and each time she never answered those questions.

@Chrysoberyl: To me, a good person just doesn’t do that. Like I said, not even an apology or just telling me she can’t do it. All communication just died. If I were her, I wouldn’t even be able to sleep at night.

As long as you’ve changed and no longer do whatever shitty things you did in the past, that’s all that matters. Maybe she will change one day and become a better person and in the future handle these types of situations in a better way…so no other bride will have to go through this. How would you feel if this had happened to you and you had to scramble the last minute?

@Olive-Popeye: Okay we get that you are frustrated and you clearly will not let up on attacking this person rather than her business. So I think I am going to step out now.

Yes I would be uspet, but would I say that she is an awful human being? You don’t even know her. You have no idea what kind of friend she is, what kind of mother she might be, what kind of sister she is, etc.

I do hope you learn to not judge people so harshly in the future. Best of luck to you.

Agree with PP, you have reason to be upset, the vendor could and should have answered your questions. However we have different definitions of evil. This doesn’t come close to my definition. I’d pay more attention to your review if it weren’t so emotionally written.

@Chrysoberyl: I generally reserve “horrible human beings” for murderers, pedophiles, people that hurt animals or push old ladies into oncoming traffic myself. I wouldn’t say a crappy vendor is a horrible human being. A jerk maybe. Unprofessional and inconsiderate definitely. Then again maybe something happened in her life too. I had a vendor fall off the radar and come back to apologize after because her mother had died. You never know what is going on in someone else’s life that’s more important than an escort card.

That said, sorry OP that you had a bad experience. I was fortunate in my etsy picks, all but one was really good, and the one that sucked at least got my stuff on time ..it just was really cheap looking (bird cage card holder).

Sounds like she’s been more than extremely accommodating to you until the end. You both dropped the ball at the end. She should have made your listing and continued to communicate, even if just to tell you to find someone else. You, on the other hand, kept asking for changes to be made and then complaining that it was getting so close to your wedding without being willing to pull the trigger on a finalized design. For all you know, she became swamped with a huge order or something personal like a death in the family came up. Calling her evil and a terrible human being just makes you look worse. Even if she ultimately screwed up, she did a lot of free work for you. You should just move on, congratulate yourself on being able to pull it all together anyway, and cherish the good things about your wedding.